Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Remember the blog
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 by Emily Boyd
Bloggers have a lot of regular tasks: from the obvious "write a new blog post" task, to researching topics, tweaking the design and features, and blog promotion. RTM user and blogger, soloviov, shared four great tips on using Remember The Milk to stay on top of these tasks and "make the best blog ever". :)
#1 I run numerous projects at a time, so I've set up a project-blog task list to keep my blog related tasks together but separate from other todo's.
#2 Within this list I've created several "never-ending" tasks which I use as idea containers:
Ideas: Content
Ideas: Design
Ideas: Features
Ideas: PromotionI put all my ideas into notes using my phone. I can do it any time they come to my mind wherever I am, and then just sync them with online account.
I run weekly reviews of these ideas and if I feel there will be some time during the upcoming week I set up certain tasks within the same list, add due dates and other attributes to put them into the pipeline.
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Focusing on tasks due now, not later
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 by Emily Boyd
This week's tip comes courtesy of RTM user bunchbob, who shared this very handy search criteria:
If you use the time feature in the due date to time things out, you can use the Smart List "dueBefore:now" and it will bring up anything you can do anytime today, as well as anything that is past due, that way you can look at time sensitive stuff.
As bunchbob points out, this is especially useful if you have tasks set for specific times (1pm, 5:30pm, etc). Only tasks that are due already will show in the Smart List: your tasks due later in the day (say 6:00pm this evening) will be hidden, so you can keep your focus on what's due now.
Thanks for sharing this tip, bunchbob! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week. :)
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we’ll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
New for Pro: Remember The Milk for Android
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 by Emily Boyd
It turns out that Androids do dream of electric cows! We're super excited to be launching Remember The Milk for Android, a feature-packed app that brings Remember The Milk goodness to your Android device. The app is now available as a free download on the Android Market for Pro users.
Stay in sync.
Yup, it's got background sync. Background sync! (Sorry to make all you iPhone users jealous! ;) Everything that you create in the app syncs back to RTM (and likewise everything from RTM syncs to your device). That's tasks, notes, lists, Smart Lists, tags, locations… everything! You can even use the entire app offline without an Internet connection, then sync up later when you're back online.
Get notified.
The app wants to help you stay on top of things; it will pop up your reminders in the notification bar so you'll know instantly when tasks are due. Running around town? The app can (optionally) keep an eye on your location, and let you know when a location with tasks is nearby.
Organize your way.
Organize efficiently by list, Smart List, tag, or location and prioritize your tasks. Not sure what's next? See at a glance how many tasks are due today, tomorrow, and this week. Don't like the ordering? Choose to sort by priority, due date, or task name for each list.
Manage your tasks.
Add and edit tasks with ease: choose from a quick 'Add task' bar and a full add mode. All the fields you've come to know and love are supported (task name, list, priority, due date/time, repeat, time estimate, tags, location, and URL) and you can even customize the fields shown. So if you're big on tagging, you can set that field to always display when adding tasks.
Get stuff done.
Need to complete or postpone multiple tasks? No problem, just check to select those tasks in the list. You can also long press on individual tasks in the list to perform quick actions, or alternatively head over to the task view screen and do it all from there. You'll be adding tasks just so you can say you've completed them. :)
Add tasks the Smart way.
Use the 'Add task' bar to add tasks with our new Smart Add syntax (e.g., "Pick up the milk tomorrow"). Save time with add by context: tasks added to your today list will be due today, while tasks added to Smart Lists inherit their criteria. If your Smart List happens to show all your high priority tasks that are due today and located at the office, any tasks added to this Smart List will automatically inherit all these properties.
Note it.
Need to store additional info about a task? Write a note for quick reference. You can manage your existing notes too, and easily edit or delete them. Email addresses and links in your notes conveniently auto-link to the mail and browser apps. Phone numbers in notes also auto-link for handy one-touch calling.
See tasks located nearby.
This is why we love devices that can detect your location! See your nearby tasks and plan the best way to get things done. Add new locations easily by current location or street address. Remember that if you locate your tasks in the app (e.g., "pick up the milk" at the supermarket), you can view them on a map on the web.
Your own personal tasks search engine.
Not only can you search for tasks by name, you can use any of the advanced search operators. Want to find your high priority tasks located within one mile and tagged with 'errand'? Done! Save your favourite searches as Smart Lists for quick access.
A handy widget.
No need to leave your Home screen to see what's due today; this widget will let you know what's due (and overdue!) so you know where to get started.
The little touches.
Want to quickly switch from the Today to the Tomorrow screen? Just swipe the screen! Prefer landscape mode? No problem, just flip your device. Anything to make managing your tasks (and life :) easier.
Thanks to…
A big thanks to the RTM users in the Pro Tester Program who helped us to test the app, giving us lots of feedback and reporting the occasional bug. Bob really appreciated your help with testing!
Ready to use RTM on your Android device?
Just search for "Remember The Milk" on the Android Market; you can also find a download link here. If you don't have a Pro account yet, you'll be able to try the app free for 15 days (login to the app to start your trial).
Want to learn more, or have any questions about the app? Please check out our Remember The Milk for Android mini-site or head over to our new Android forum. We hope you like the app! :)
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Mind dumping with email + Smart Add
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 by Emily Boyd
Too many tasks cluttering up your brain? Try out this very useful tip from RTM user ovanrijswijk:
Those of you who are using RTM as a GTD-system might also be using "Mind Dumps". A mind dump is simply a way for you to get everything out of your head and into writing (paper or digital).
Our brains aren’t made to remember things forever, but written down text is; with an empty brain, we’re able to either focus on new things or deal with the task at hand, instead of constantly dwelling on past things taking up valuable bandwidth. This writing resulting from a mind dump is an important part of collecting stuff. Once written down, the stuff is to be processed an organized into your RTM-system.
Now here comes my Tip: use an e-mail to write down your mind dump to add it fast-and-easy to RTM. Send it to your RTM Import Email Address.
Once a week – i.e. during your Weekly Review – open a new e-mail and start writing. One item per line. After this mind dump send the e-mail to your RTM Import Email Address.
The result: all the items in your "mind dump e-mail" are converted to tasks in your RTM Inbox. That's where you can start to process and organize. Add data one task-item at a time – make it a project or a next action; add tags, location, notes and/or other metadata. And put the task on the right list.
…. and the stuff is off your mind and into your RTM-system.
As ovanrijswijk later notes, you can also use the import a list via email feature to include tasks with Smart Add syntax for a "Smart" mind dump. Your email might then look something like this:
Subject: Inbox To: [Your Remember The Milk import email address] Buy birthday present for Mike today Pay the phone bill tomorrow Make dentist appointment on Tuesday #errand Pick up the milk tomorrow @Supermarket
Thanks for sharing this tip, ovanrijswijk! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week. :)
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we’ll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Introducing Smart Add: a smarter way to add your tasks
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 by Emily Boyd
We're really excited today to be launching a big update to Remember The Milk — we're calling it the Smart Add edition (you'll see why in a minute!).
With this update, we've focused on making it as fast and easy as possible to add your tasks to Remember The Milk (that's the "smart" bit). We've also made a bunch of improvements to the web app to make it easier to manage your tasks once they're in there, and have sped up the app a little too. So, what exactly is new?
Smart Add
First, we have a new "Add Task" field that's always on screen (you can still jump to it with the keyboard shortcut t).
This field is a little bit special: it supports entering all your task's properties in one line, with our new Smart Add feature. Below are details on each of the task properties, and how you can include them when you add a task. Many of the properties have an auto-suggest feature for quick access to your existing tags, lists, locations, etc.
Task Name and Due Date
Enter your due date and/or time alongside your task name (include it after the name if you can). You can enter due dates in any of the supported due date formats. Note: The task name and due date should always come first, but you can include the below properties in any order after that.
Due Date (Alternative Method)
If Smart Add has trouble understanding your due date and/or time when it's entered alongside your task name (for instance, if you're entering due dates in a non-English language), you can use this method to specify your due date separately.
Enter ^ followed by your due date and/or time. You can enter due dates in any of the supported due date formats.
Priority
Enter ! followed by your priority (1, 2, or 3; if you don't specify one, the default is no priority).
List and Tags
Enter # followed by your list or tag name. If you don't already have a list or tag with that name, a new tag will be created.
You can include both list and tags with this symbol (make sure you enter a new # before each one).
With all of the properties that auto-suggest, you can also type a partial name to see any matches.
Location
Enter @ followed by the location (it must already be set up as a location in Remember The Milk).
Repeat
Enter * followed by how often the task should repeat. In addition to the auto-suggested options, you can enter any supported repeat formats.
Time Estimate
Enter = followed by your time estimate. In addition to the auto-suggested options, you can enter any supported time estimate formats.
URL
Just include a URL (must begin with http:// or similar).
Let's put it all together…
Remember that the task name and due date should be first, but after that you can include the rest of the task properties in any order.
Can't remember all the symbols? No problem! In the web app, click on the help icon to the right of the "Add Task" field to access a handy cheat sheet.
Not just for the web app…
We've started to add support for the new Smart Add syntax in different Remember The Milk interfaces. Aside from the web app, you can also use Smart Add when adding tasks in Remember The Milk for Gmail, and when adding via email and Twitter. It's also available in the API for third-party developers. Stay tuned for Smart Add support in more interfaces!
Bonus tweaks (read this!)
While developing Smart Add for the web app, we took the opportunity to make a few (pretty big!) tweaks to improve how things work with this new feature. If you have Smart Add enabled, this is what you need to know:
No auto-selection when adding tasks
In the past when you added a task, it would automatically remain selected. This was so you could quickly edit additional task properties (e.g., due date) using the keyboard shortcuts. With Smart Add enabled, it's now possible to include these task properties while adding the task, so tasks will no longer auto-select when added.
Changes to task selection
We've received a lot of feedback on the way that tasks are selected in the web app. To maintain the flexibility and power of Remember The Milk, but make it clearer which task/s you're working with (and reduce the likelihood of accidental changes to multiple tasks!), we've made some changes to how tasks are selected:
To select a single task: Click on the task's row.
To select multiple tasks: Click on the checkboxes in the tasks' rows.
Changes to multi-edit mode
With Smart Add enabled, you will no longer need to turn multi-edit mode on to edit multiple tasks at once. If you've selected multiple tasks (by clicking on the checkboxes, as described above), you'll automatically be in multi-edit mode. We've made this clearer on the right:
This makes the web app behave consistently: if multiple tasks have been selected, any actions in 'More Actions' as well as any changes to the task properties on the right, will apply to all tasks selected.
Prefer the old way?
We realize that the above changes will take some getting used to — if you prefer the old way that the web app worked, you can disable Smart Add in Settings, and continue using everything as you were. However, we'd recommend giving this a try before making up your mind. :)
Speed improvements
We've also been working on some speed improvements to the web app: lists, Smart Lists, and searches will now load twice as fast. W00t!
Thank you, testers!
We'd like to say a huge thank you to all the members of the Pro Tester Program who've been testing these new features, sending us feedback, and letting us know about the occasional bug. Thanks, guys — we really appreciate all your help! :)
Want to learn more about Smart Add, or have any questions about how it works? Please check out our Smart Add page. We hope you enjoy the Smart Add edition!
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Mindless tasks for multi-tasking
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 by Emily Boyd
Looking for tasks that don't require too much thinking? Check out this helpful tip from RTM user lclarke522:
I created a "mindless" tag for those tasks that take a decent amount of time, but don't require much brain-power (washing dishes, packing orders, etc.). These are perfect tasks to complete while your mind is engaged in something way more interesting, like listening to a favorite podcast.
A Smart List created from the search query "tag:mindless AND dueBefore:Tomorrow" gives you a nice list of boring tasks – those due today, and also those overdue – that you can plug away at while you're thinking about more enjoyable things.
Thanks for sharing this tip, lclarke522! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week. :)
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we’ll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.
Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Romance planning with Remember The Milk
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 by Emily Boyd
This week's winner, RTM user andrew.wilkie, shared a great tip for a more unusual use of Remember The Milk: romance planning! Bob's been following this tip, and it's already paying off (see photo, below). andrew.wilkie says:
Regular romance is good, certainly if you are in a relationship! Recently I read an article in a newspaper. Listing 10 things you can do for your partner.
Rather than keep the article I emailed myself/RTM the suggestions. Each suggestion becoming a new 'task' each month. 1 task per month.
I set the deadline to "month" i.e March. I didn't know but RTM has set the date for the 1st of each "month". That suits me since I use RTM and my email calendar extensively. This will give me time to book that weekend away.
Thanks for sharing this tip, andrew.wilkie!
Do you have a suggestion for our weekly Tips & Tricks post? Got an interesting set-up or idea? Head over to the Tips & Tricks forum and add a new thread and let us know how you use RTM. Each week we’ll give away a 1 year Pro account to the user whose idea inspires the Tips & Tricks Tuesday blog post for that week.